


The Traitor Among Us

by EdamamiTomoe



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, F/F, Fluff, Groping, Murder, Necrophilia, Yuri, no sex actually happens btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:07:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28627746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdamamiTomoe/pseuds/EdamamiTomoe
Summary: A mission has been sabotaged, and now the crew must figure out who the imposter is before everyone has been eliminated. And yet, when duty comes into conflict with long-established friendships and romantic relationships, one finds her own morals compromised, and her decisions fraught with repercussions.
Kudos: 3





	The Traitor Among Us

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I'm like super sleepy and sleep deprived right now, because every time I get the inspiration to write this, it's super late at night after I finished a night of Among Us. So it might be a bit uhh less good than what I usually write, I hope you guys don't mind. I just really wanted to get this idea out there, cause like, it's fun.
> 
> Like I originally just wanted to write a cringe Among Us smut fic with like, yuri and yaoi and all that shit, after seeing some really nice R18 humanized fanart of the game (which is why I wrote all the characters as like, humans in jumpsuits and helmets + visors), but I got a little too into it, so now it's just heavy melodrama. Hope you guys have fun with it though.

"Everyone, we have a problem." 

Cyan slams his massive hands down on the cafeteria table, his clenched jaw straining his scruffy face against his helmet and his eyes intense underneath his visor. 

"Yeah tell me about it, Lieutenant Chrogus." Green says sarcastically, although his crossed arms and demeanour communicates an understanding of the gravity of the situation.

"We must have two imposters among us." Cyan continues, his head turning slowly as e scans across the crew, "That mission would not have gone so poorly if someone wasn't sabotaging us. Our captain would not have died out there if someone was not sabotaging our ship."

"I can't believe Captain Jrogan is gone just like that…" Yellow says sadly, her eyes downcast as she wrings her hands together, although she can't actually see them due to her enormous bust being in the way of that. "He was such a good man…"

"Our ship took heavy damage too." Blue notes, touching his visor as if he's adjusting his glasses, and then realizing how silly that was. "We'll never make it back to the star base at this point unless we can get everything fixed up."

"Indeed. I'll have the computer quickly scan the ship for issues and delegate tasks to everyone." Cyan says solemnly, crossing his muscular arms and causing his biceps to strain against his skintight suit, "If we work efficiently, we should be able to get the ship back to working order and return to base."

"Just don't forget to look out for the imposters, guys." Red says, examining the little monitors and buttons built into the arms of her suit, "You guys see a body or if your sensor goes off, you report that body. We have to get to the bottom of this before the aliens commandeer our ship."

"Yeah, that's right. We have to be vigilant about our surroundings if we want to find the imposter." This time it's Purple who speaks, letting go of Orange's hand to gesture as she talk. "Try not to let one another out of sight, and if you find evidence on anyone, make sure you call an emergency meeting and let everyone know."

"Hmm, alright, the computer should be done sending out everyone's tasks now…" White observes, pulling up his task list on his visor to check. "We can't see under each other's helmet visor, but this task bar should update as we complete tasks. This should keep us organized."

"Hmm, excellent. I think we are ready to head out then." Cyan nods with determination, and uncrosses his arms as he loudly announces, "Meeting is adjourned!"

\---

As everyone disperses to do their tasks, Blue and Green downloading data in the cafeteria and cleaning out the air chute, Purple looks over her tasks and says to Orange, once again holding her hands, "Hmm, looks like I should go handle O2 first. What's your first task, Yuriun?"

"Oh, mine? I gotta refuel the engines. Not a big fan of that one." Orange shrugs nonchalantly, rolling her eyes, not that Purple could see. "These tasks don't look so hard."

"Sounds like we'll be going opposite ways then. You stay safe out there, okay?" Purple says with a cheerful smile, squeezing her hands tightly as she looks up at Orange, "Don't get yourself killed!"

"Oh, haha, don't worry, I'll be fine." Orange shrugs and gives a smile just as nonchalant as her tone, "You worry about yourself."

"Hey lovebirds!" Green calls out from next to the download data panel, "You gonna get a move-on or what? We ain't got all day!"

"Mind your own business, Chovsi. We're on it." Orange sticks out her tongue at Green before turning to Purple again and giving her a quick kiss, letting go of her hands. "I'll see you later, Helras. Stay safe."

"Mhmm! You too, Yuriun!"

With that, the two part ways, Purple heading east and Orange heading south. Passing by admin and giving Brown a wave, before going down to pick up some fuel, Orange quickly scans her environment. Once she's certain there's no one else nearby, she starts heading towards electrical, following the sound of Yellow's humming.

Orange comes around the corner, and sure enough, Yellow is there alone, working on the wires, idly swaying her wide hips back and forth. She's such a ditzy bimbo, and just about everyone on the crew wants some of that. Luckily for Orange, Yellow is a lesbian.

Coming up from behind Yellow and hugging her at the waist, Orange whispers into her ear, or where it would be if the helmet wasn't covering it, "Boo!"

"O-oh! Oh it's just you, Yuriun. Ahaha, don't scare me like that!" Yellow laughs, turning her head to give Orange a peck on the cheek, her hands still on the wires.

"Aw, come on Nalias, you gotta be more cautious than that. I could have been an imposter, yknow." Orange says with a smile, her hands moving up from Yellow's waist up to her chest, giving her fat plastic tits a nice squeeze, her gloved hands squeaking a bit against the skintight suit hugging Yellow's bust tightly.

"Hehehe, oh I know. You though, I know I can trust~" Yellow playfully pushes her hips back against Orange's groin, getting her to thrust a few times, dry humping her enormous ass. She bites her lips a little as she sucks in air through her mouth, getting kind of turned on by the way Orange is rubbing and massaging her breasts. "I… I should really get back to my task, though."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll leave you to it." Orange plants a kiss to her cheek before letting go of her tits. Instead of pulling herself away from Yellow though, she reaches up and, in one swift motion, snaps Yellow's neck, dropping her to the floor, lifeless. 

Staring down at Yellow's limp body, resting so motionlessly, Orange licks her lips and kneels down, softly tracing a finger along her cheek down to her plush lips, before once again going to fondle her silicon-heavy chest. Lowering her voice to a whisper, Orange says, "It's nothing personal, Nalias. You're really hot, and fun to play with, but I have a mission to complete."

As she gropes Yellow's dead body, Orange slowly moves a hand down towards Yellow's crotch, before hearing the door locking and a surprised "hey! What the?". Not wanting to risk anything, she quickly scurries over to the vent and slithers on in, moving through it back out to security with her full gas can, and heads down to start refueling the lower engine. Surely enough, just seconds later, the alarm sounds, and a body was found.

\---

“The body was in electrical.” Blue says solemnly, once again touching his visor as if he’s adjusting his glasses, but this time he does not realize how silly it is, as the gravity of the situation demands his seriousness. “After I uploaded data in admin, I headed towards electrical to calibrate the distributor, when the door suddenly closed on me, and I had to wait for it to open. When I finally managed to make it in, I found Yellow’s body.”

“Alright. Where was everyone?” Cyan immediately takes charge of the investigation, crossing his beefy veiny arms and staring down at the remaining crew in an intimidating manner, communicated primarily through his scowl, as his eyes are hidden behind his visor.

“I was in the cafeteria emptying garbage.” Green says nonchalantly, also crossing his arms to mimic Cyan, “After that, I headed to do the asteroids, and I got about half done when the meeting suddenly got called.”

“I was in O2, I finished cleaning the filter and headed over to fix wiring near navigation.” Purple says, gesturing to Green and adding, “I did see Green at weapons clearing the asteroids.”

“Hey, cool, I saw you too Purple.” Green does a little wave.

“I was in the medbay, running the samples.” Red says, her eyes beneath her visor seemingly studying everyone standing at the table, “While I waited for the samples to process, I headed over to align the engine outputs. Upper engine.”

“I was in admin. I saw Orange pass by and go into storage.” Brown says simply, his head barely peeking above the table due to his tiny stature. He’s never been a talkative one. 

“Real quick, we have about one minute left of meeting time.” White quickly interjects, checking his wrist monitor, “We have to finish patching up the ship in time or before it falls apart.”

"And where were you, White?"

"I was handling wires in navigation." White responds to Cyan, "After which I headed towards communications."

"I was heading to refuel lower engines." Orange says, raising her hand, "I got the fuel from storage and lugged it all the way over to lower engine. I was about halfway done when the meeting was called."

"Hm, alright." Cyan gives a deep and serious nod, before answering his own question. "I was in reactor, trying to get it to start back up. This meeting is about to end, and I'm not sure who I sus right now. Keep your eyes peeled and stay alert, crew."

His command is met with a chorus of, "Aye, lieutenant!", before the meeting adjourns, and everyone returns to their tasks, each of them bearing new suspicions of each other.

\---

As Orange heads away from the table, she receives a telepathic message from Cyan, saying, "I covered you pretty well with that door maneuver, huh? I watched what you did from security."

"I had it handled. But I appreciate it." Orange responds silently, as she and Purple exchange kisses and words of reassurance.  
"Well, if you say so. We really ought to work together more closely, though, keep each other updated more." Cyan is starting to head towards reactor again, so he keeps things brief before he's out of telepathy range. "Just don't get distracted. We have a mission to complete."

Hm. And he's out of range. Orange quietly scowls, her expression hidden from Purple as they give each other a tight hug before parting ways. She's well-aware that Cyan is referring to her intimacy with the crew they are supposed to assassinate, and she dislikes his tone. All they need to do is eliminate down to 2 crew members, as at that point they will be powerless to stop them from commandeering the ship and executing them, but Orange is fairly certain she can make a case for keeping Purple alive if they subdued her and kept her restrained. She's not supposed to be attached to anyone on the job, but Purple is just too endearing, y'know?

Whatever. Orange will work something out. For now, it's back to refilling lower engine. And thinking about her next move, although she isn't sure who to kill next. Maybe Green, that guy's kind of annoying. Or maybe Red. She isn't quite as curvy as Yellow, but Orange quite like her too. 

Just as she finishes her task though, she telepathically hears Cyan's voice again, "White is in medbay, going for a scan. Cover me while I go in for the kill."

"Alright." Oh, White? That’s fine. That guy’s kinda boring anyhow. Orange should probably head up to security and do some sabotages while Cyan is at it.

Leaving the lower engines, Orange heads up the hallway when she sees Red coming out of reactor. Hey, it’s Red. Neat. She gives her a little wave and goes, “Hey Jaryot, how’s it going?”

Red returns the wave and answers, “Just finished aligning upper engine and unlocking manifolds in reactor. I’m heading down to align the lower engine. Yourself?”

“Oh, just finished refueling lower engine, fixing some wires.” Orange leans against the wall and acts cool, giving Red a lazy little smirk, hoping to get a reaction out of her. Red’s always been fairly professional, but it’d be nice to see a little bit of her friendlier side. “Just figured I’d swing by security to take a look. Just in case I catch anyone being sus, y’know?”

“Alright.” Red answers plainly and unflinchingly, before asking, “Have you seen Cyan? I thought I saw him coming this way earlier.”

“Oof, cold. That’s fine, that’s fine.” Orange stands back up straight, ignoring Cyan’s telepathic request for a sabotage. “Yeah I did, he was heading down towards storage.”

“Hm, alright.” Red ponders for a second, “I just thought he was going to reactivate the reactor, is all. I had thought that that would take longer than… that.”

“Hey, I getcha.” Orange shrugs, getting annoyed with Cyan’s yelling at her in her mind, so she quickly does a sabotage, sending a psionic wave towards electrical to short out the lights, and at the same time locking the door to medbay to keep whoever it was from walking in on Cyan. “Oh, whoa. What was that?”

“Must be the imposter.” Red answers plainly, and says, “Go do what you were about to do. I will go handle the lights.” 

“Understood, Jaryot. Godspeed, don’t get yourself killed.”

Finally heading into security to watch the cameras, her eyes adjusting to the dark, Orange finally sees that Blue is standing before the medbay, waiting for the door to unlock again. Although, even when the door unlocks, the dark is making it hard for him to actually make anything out, but from his lack of an accusation, it seems like Cyan has made it out safely. Since Cyan isn’t in security right now, he must have fled to electrical.

Moments later, as the lights come back on, the alarm sounds, and a body is found.

\---

The remaining members gather at the table - Red, Orange, Purple, Green, Blue, Brown, and Cyan. The mood is tense, as two crew have already been murdered. Everyone is well aware that three more deaths, and the imposters will have taken over the ship. Once again, Blue begins.

“The body was in medbay.” He says, eyeing the rest of the crew suspiciously, “I was heading over to do my scan after I finished my tasks in navigation, when the door suddenly locked, and the lights went out. By the time the door opened and the lights came back on, White was already dead on the scanner. I believe the imposter may have escaped through the vent.”

“Well, I was in security, and Red can vouch for me on that, and I didn’t see or hear anything out of the vents, so.” Orange shrugs, giving Red a look and receiving an affirmative nod to her testimony, before continuing, “Who was in electrical anyways? The lights came on pretty quick.”

“Cyan and I.” Red says, adding on, “Although it seems like he was already there by the time I arrived. I’m not sure why he took so long to respond to the lights going out, however.”

“I was struggling with the wires.” Cyan answers confidently, “Whoever had killed Yellow left a mess in the wiring. I had to take time to untangle much of it.”

“I… do not recall seeing that, when I went up to divert power to communications.” Purple says, thinking over it, “But I might have just missed it. I wasn’t really paying much attention to the wiring.”

“Hmph, I don’t like what you are implying, Purple.” Cyan responds, his arms crossed and his gaze intense, something that got an apologetic look out of Purple, “Either way, isn’t this your second time reporting the body, Blue? And the second time you’ve used the door locking as an excuse. Are you sure you are not the imposter?”

“What? How can you say such a thing, Lieutenant!?” Blue’s seriousness quickly turns to defensiveness, as his lips curl down into a scowl, angered by the coincidence being used as evidence against him.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t navigation like all the way across the ship anyhow? You must have really booked it to make it to medbay like that.” Green adds, starting to look uncomfortably at Blue as well. “I just, I dunno. I don’t think anyone can vouch for you right now. I mean, I did see Purple heading from electrical to communications while I was emptying trash in storage.” 

“I don’t know what you are insinuating Chovsi, but I don’t like it.” Blue snaps, starting to get the sweats and the shakes, “Hey, Brown, you can back me up, right? You saw me in navigation, right?”

“I do not recall.” Brown shakes his head, his face devoid of expressions, although it’s always like that, even without the visor, “I was handling shields.”

“Blue, you are not getting out of this. Your presence compromises our security.” Cyan says firmly, clenching his jaw as everyone follows his steely gaze to look at Blue suspiciously as well, “Meeting time is almost over. I hope everyone makes the right choice.”

With that, he presses in his vote on his wrist monitor, followed by Green, Purple, Red, Brown, and then Orange. WIth no one backing him, and with no time left, Blue slowly backs away, his gaze shifting from one person to the next. Shaking his head slowly and fearfully, he mutters, “If all of you are seriously suspecting that I am the imposter, you are all making a huge mistake. You can’t vote me out like this.”

But, at this point, there is nothing he can do, as the rest of the crew forces him out the airlock and into the cold of space. 

As Blue drifts away and dies, the rest of the crew starts to realize their mistake, as his body does not undergo any transformations, something imposters are said to do when executed in this way. But at this point, it is too late for them to change their minds. All they can do is somberly return to their tasks, and hope that the ghosts of the departed are finishing their tasks as well.

\---

"You need to stop getting distracted." Cyan says to Orange in her mind, "We have a mission to complete. I could have been caught."

"I did what you asked, didn't I? I created a distraction and kept you out of sight." Orange is exasperated and annoyed, starting to get tired of Cyan's pushiness. "Either way, it's just 3 humans left, so."

"Fine, you're right. We only need to kill one more, and the remaining won't be enough to stop us." Cyan says, as he heads towards navigation, "I'll go after Purple, she has been sus of me."

He wouldn't dare. He's doing this on purpose. Orange knows that Purple did sus him, but she's fairly certain this is personal. Cyan must be doing this to get back at her for almost getting him caught. That prick. She… she can't let him do that. They are on a mission, but Purple is hers, and she won't let Cyan get his hands on her. At least Red is in admin with Purple right now, so Cyan can't make a move, but... 

"Hey, what's wrong? You're awfully quiet." Green asks, as he busies himself downloading data at the computer, watching Orange work on the wires.

"Ah, it's nothing." Orange sighs and shakes her head, "Just… worried. There's only so many of us left, and the imposters are still out there. And I honestly don't know who it could be."

"Hmm, yeah…" Green looks up at the ceiling and ponders, not knowing that the only thing keeping him alive right now is the fact that everyone knows they went in the same direction. "I'm honestly pretty sus of the Lieutenant, if you ask me. He's been acting kinda strange."

"You aren't wrong about that." Orange sighs, thinking of how she's gonna keep Purple alive. "I wonder who the other could be though. I… can only imagine it's either Jaryot or Brown, I trust you and Helras enough. Besides, Brown is the only one unaccounted for right now, since he went off to accept diverted power in reactor by himself."

"Hey, maybe. I just hope we'll get the ship fixed and back to HQ in time." Green says as he finishes download, and gets up from his seat. "Anyways, I'm heading to admin to do some downloads. You stay safe yourself. Know that I always got your back, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks. I got your back too." Orange gives him a small smile and pets him on the head, "I just gotta go fix some wiring in electrical."

Green is heading to admin, Brown is busy on the other side of the ship… this is the perfect opportunity. Yes. Quickly scuttling towards shields and then up the hallway, slithering into the vents, Orange sends a psionic wave towards the oxygen systems, taking it out of commission. Immediately, the ship’s alarms sound, and a countdown begins. Preparing herself an alibi and making sure Brown stays out of the way, she also locks the storage, engines, and electrical doors. Quickly slithering to the admin vents, Orange lays low and listens in on the commotion.

“Ah crap, the O2 is depleting. I just started uploading data too...” Sounds like Green.

“You take care of that.” That’s Red. “Purple, you handle this O2 panel. I will head over to handle the other.”

“I’m on it! Don’t you worry, I got this.” Purple exclaims, quickly hurrying over to the number pad. Ah, what a good girl she is. She’s too good for this crew, honestly.

But wait, there’s no time to fawn over her right now. She needs to slither on over to the cafeteria vent.

“Looks like the door down to storage is locked.” Red reports as she heads out of admin.

“Oh that ain’t good. Yuriun won’t be able to make it to the O2 room then.” Thanks for the alibi, Green. He’s so easy to manipulate.

“That’s fine. I’ll handle this.” Red says, and continues on her way.

Perfect, perfect… Waiting under the cafeteria vent, Orange can hear Red making it into weapons, and down towards O2. With the coast cleared, she exits the vent, and quietly sneaks over as well. She turns the corner, and finds Red scrambling for the sticky note with the passcode on it. Without any hesitation, she surprises Red with a hug from behind - one hand over Red’s mouth and the other transformed into a spike and driven through her back.

“Heh, sorry about that, Jaryot. Nothing personal.” Orange whispers, her spike pulling back out and returning to the shape of a hand, as Red collapses in her arms, glaring up at her with betrayal in her eyes and blood in her throat, as she hemorrhages from her chest. Moving her hands to grope at her breasts and her crotch, Orange leans in and kisses her on the lips, getting a nice, salty taste, as blood spews out from her lips. “But your death will serve to protect Helras.”

Once life has drained from Red’s face, and she falls limp, Orange lets her down on the floor, and quickly scuttles away, down to the vent outside of navigation, once again traversing through it to spy on admin. Along her way though, she hears Cyan’s angry telepathic messages.

“What are you doing? I thought we had agreed that we would work more cooperatively together!” He exclaims in such a way that Orange can practically hear him clenching his teeth, “This was not what we agreed to!”

“Hey, relax. I got this under control. There’s only three of them left at this point, our mission is almost done.” Orange responds, keeping the tone of her telepathic voice neutral enough that her anger and hatred for him wouldn’t come through. “Assuming they even manage to fix the O2 on time, we’ll just have to both vote to skip, and they won’t be able to eject anyone.”

“Hmph. Fine. But I won’t forget this.” Cyan is such a hardass, geez. Hate this guy. To think, they went through all the trouble of infiltrating the human space engineer academy and studying in it for like three years, just so he can make their missions together so fucking unbearable.

“Anyways, you should really head over to O2 too.” Orange says, bringing her plan all together. Cyan knows what Purple means to her, as their relationship has been going strong all those years ever since they met in the academy. If he’s going to purposely give her shit like this, he’s going to suffer the consequences. Orange won’t let anyone get their hands on Purple, even if it means compromising the mission. As long as she finishes off Green and Brown, it will be fine. The mission will have been a success regardless. The higher ups won’t care who dies if it means the mission succeeds, anyhow. “You wouldn’t want the others to get suspicious by taking too long.”

“Hmph.”

Sounds like Cyan really is heading over to O2 now, sweet. While that whole conversation was going on in her head, Orange could overhear in admin Green and Purple getting pretty antsy too. After all, the countdown was to 15 seconds, and still nothing from the other end, so Green ends up being the one to volunteer going to check up on Red and fixing O2. Everything is coming together.

Surely enough, just moments later, the alarm sounds, and a body was reported. (And O2 was fixed). 

\---

“I saw the Lieutenant.” Green immediately exclaims at the meeting, pointing directly at Cyan, “I saw him standing by Red’s body. He’s the imposter!”

“I am not the imposter! That is nonsense!” Cyan pounds the table angrily, glaring back at Green and saying, “How do I know YOU’RE not the imposter? You were near the body too!”

Telepathically, Cyan is even more frantic, as he tells Orange, “Come on, back me up! You told me you had a plan!”

But, of course, Orange does not respond. Instead, she says, “Is that… is that true?”

“Oh, that’s right, you were trapped in electrical, weren’t you?” Purple says worryingly, not just sticking close to Orange, but also holding her hand tightly, looking up at her with caring eyes. “I heard Green and Red talking about that before Red went up to O2…”

“So Cyan is the imposter?” Brown says simply, his face still devoid of expressions as his hand hovers over his wrist monitor, “Is that who we are voting out?”

“No, that is not, Brown.” Cyan growls, starting to lose his composure when he fails to receive a telepathic response from his partner, “You were unaccounted for too! How can we know it isn’t you!?”

“I was trapped.” Brown answers plainly. “Both doors to engines were locked. I couldn’t leave reactor and security.”

“Guys! I literally saw Cyan by the body! It’s him!” Green cries, getting more and more exasperated as he pushes the button on his wrist monitor, “I’m serious! He killed Jaryot!”

“Yuriun! What are you doing!?” More of Cyan’s telepathic screaming in Orange’s head, as he gets more and more desperate. “We had a deal! You aren’t going to compromise the mission, are you!?”

“Cyan, I… you were sus before too.” Purple says nervously, holding onto Orange and borderline hiding behind her out of fear of this enormous man, “I thought your story about… about White’s death to be kind of weird. You were behind that too, weren’t you? You must have killed him and vented into electrical, which is why you were already there when Red went to fix the lights…”

“Everyone else is accounted for.” Brown nods, and touches his finger to his monitor. “It can only be you, Cyan.”

“Yuriun!! What are you doing!?” Cyan’s telepathic screaming is getting unbearable, so Orange starts blocking out his thoughts. At this point, they don’t matter anyways. “Yuriun…!!”

“Thank you, Brown. We have to get this imposter off this ship.” Green gives Purple and Orange both a nod, and they both vote as well. “To think that Lieutenant Chrogus is an imposter… I trusted you, you know.”

No matter what Cyan does at this point, no matter what angry pulses of psionic energies he sends out, blasting out communications and lights, shorting out O2 and destabilizing reactor, and locking more doors, he can’t stop his own execution. Red in the face, all he could do was scream, “Traitor!!”, as he’s ejected from the airlock, his body twisting and turning upon contact with the vacuum of space, until his true grotesque form is exposed. His tendrils and rows of teeth thrash and flail for a moment, before his body goes stiff, and his colour fades.

\---

The crew’s moment of relief upon having gotten rid of an imposter does not last long, as the ship’s in even worse shape now, with the lights and communications out, and the reactor and O2 systems failing. With only 4 people left, one of whom is an imposter, the crew only has so much time to get everything back in working order, and figure out who is the last imposter. Suspicions fly all around, but everyone is working on limited time either way.

“Okay, we only have a bit of time left.” Green says, his eyes darting back and forth from crewmember to crewmember, his voice tense as he quickly delegates tasks, “Purple, we’re gonna go get the reactor under control. I only have one task left to do after that, so I’ll join up with you guys here in the cafeteria afterwards. Orange, Brown, you two handle O2. How many tasks do you guys have left?”

“I’m already done.” Purple says, hugging onto Orange tightly for comfort, “I can come back to meet you guys immediately once we’re done stabilizing the reactor.”

“I’m finished as well.” Brown answers bluntly. “I can handle the admin panel.”

“I only have one task left too.” Orange says, “I’ll go handle the O2 panel.”

“Okay, cool, good. Let’s get a move on then.” Green says, already heading for the reactor, as Brown heads towards admin.

Purple takes a moment though, hugging onto Orange tightly and burying her face in her chest, as her girlfriend softly pets her on her helmet for comfort. Her voice a whimper, she says softly, “There’s… there’s only one imposter left, and I’m pretty sure it’s Brown. I’m… I’m so scared, I don’t want to lose you.”

“Mm. I know. I know.” Orange hates having to deceive her girlfriend like this, but… it’s… truly, nothing personal. It’s just part of the mission. Once she eliminates Brown and Green, she swears to herself that she will keep Purple safe. Maybe incapacitated so she wouldn’t have to witness anything, or maybe have that part of her memories erased or altered. Anything so they can stay together. Anything so she won’t have to lose Helras. “I’ll… I’ll stay safe. I’ll avoid Brown once I get O2 fixed. I’ll stay alive for you, and we’ll vote him out after.”

“Yeah… mm, yeah, that would be nice.” Purple dries her tears with mechanisms in her visor, and slowly pulls away, knowing she can’t linger for long if she wants to stabilize that reactor. As she and her girlfriend slowly part ways, she utters one last time, “Yuriun, I… I love you. I hope we’ll… we’ll make it back to HQ together.”

“We will, Helras. I promise.” Orange says firmly, on her way to O2 herself. “I love you too, Helras.”

With that, she’s on her own. Orange at this point really does not have to fix O2, as she can simply leave the rest to die from asphyxiation to complete her mission. But… obviously, she’s not gonna do that Purple. Not after what she promised her. She’ll… she’ll make sure she keeps all of this from Purple, one way or another.

Once she’s punched the numbers in in O2, restoring the ventilation system, Orange hurries out and down to the vent. Slithering her way into admin, she quietly exits the vents and slowly creeps up on Brown, who’s just about to leave admin for the cafeteria. This will be quick and easy, just a swift execution. Silently approaching him from behind, she reaches out for his throat, and…

Suddenly, Brown turns around and catches her hands just in time, holding them tightly and pushing against them. For once, he shows an expression, as his lips curl downwards in fear, and he says, his voice quaking, “I… I knew it. I knew it was you, Orange.”

“Hmph, yeah, well, too late.” Orange tries to pull her hands away, but Brown is surprisingly strong, at least for his stature. She’s not in a good position to transform her hands into spikes either, so instead she plants her feet firmly in the ground, and twists her body around, flinging Brown hard enough that he lets go, and is sent crashing down on the admin map. 

It sounds like the reactor alarm has stopped, so Orange picks up the pace. She needs to finish off Brown quick, she doesn’t have time to waste on him. Finally getting a chance to turn her hands into sharp spikes, Orange once again lunges at Brown, determined to skewer him, but Brown is nimble, quickly rolling out of the way just in time, as Orange’s spikes pierce through and crack the admin map. Tumbling onto the floor, Brown quickly grabs a nearby chair and tries to fling it at Orange, but with only limited success due to his size, but it still forces Orange to leap off the map to avoid getting hit. As he’s hurrying to grab another though, struggling to pick it up, Orange manages to recover from that dodge and lunge forward, stabbing Brown in the back, right through the heart, her arm coming out through the other side, killing him instantly.

Standing back up straight and taking a moment to catch her breath, Orange holds her arm up, with Brown still skewered on her spike. Scowling at his corpse for having given her so much trouble, Orange swings her arm downwards, throwing his body down on the floor and transforming her spikes back into hands and shaking the blood off of her body. Just then, though, she hears a voice that sends a shiver down her spine.

“...Yuriun…?”

Orange freezes, and slowly turns around.

“Yuriun, you’re… you’re the imposter…?”

“Helras… wait, no…! Do not-!”

The alarm sounds. A body has been reported.

\---

“It was… it was Yuriun!” Purple says, her voice and body both quaking with fear.

“It was a self report!” Orange yells, her breathing heavy and her throat aching as she implores Green, “Chovsi, you have to believe me! Helras… I saw Helras take Brown’s life right in front of me…!”

“That’s not… that’s not true…” Purple is practically weeping at this point, barely able to speak. 

“Y-you two…” Green stares wildly at Purple and Orange both, seeing them standing far apart for the first time, having voted for each other. Only three of them left, and the couple known for always having been sweethearts in the academy are now accusing each other. Even if he knows that one of them has to be the imposter, having to be the tie-breaker, having to decide which one lives and which one dies… it’s a dreadful feeling. “I, I…” 

“Please…” Purple has completely broken down crying, unable to say anymore as Orange remains firm in her conviction.

“Chovsi, you can’t let us die, you… you have to make your decision.” Orange’s chest heaves up and down as she begs, her unusual distress communicating fear and anxiety to Green. After all, she would… she would never act like this unless it was true. Green knows this. Green trusts her. “Please, please Chovsi… please trust me on this…”

“I…” Green swallows hard, his finger hovering over his monitor. He’s not going to be able to live this down. Imposter or not, she was his friend. They’ve been friends for too long. “I’m sorry, Helras.”

\---

Yuriun… never thought she would be the one to execute Helras. She never wanted it to come to this, but when it comes to her own survival, she simply… had no choice. As she and Chovsi watch Helras drift into space, curled up in a fetal position and weeping into her death, she hears Chovsi slowly backing away from her, as he realizes his mistake. Not wanting to face him after begging him to trust her, Yuriun simply transforms one hand into a spike, and slashes his throat without turning to him. As he bleeds out and crumbles to the floor dead, Yuriun is left the sole survivor of Skeld.

Turning away from the airlock and heading into the dark of the ship, Yuriun’s human-like form slowly dissolves into a mass of tendrils and spikes and teeth, her numerous glowing eyes finally revealing themselves. Settling down on the floor in the middle of the ship, she begins establishing a psionic channel with the mothership to report in.

“The mission is a success. All humans have been eliminated from Skeld. Chrogus was killed during the mission.”

“Excellent work, Yuriun. It is unfortunate what happened to Chrogus, but you have done well. You are to use an escape pod to evacuate the ship. Resume your infiltration, and await your next assignment.”

“Understood.”

The mission… was a success, in the end. Yuriun will live another day, and she will infiltrate another ship and repeat the same process. And yet, as she looks out the window upon the vastness of space, she feels no glory, no sense of accomplishment, nor pride in her work. No, space just feels… too empty now, without her by her side. Too cold.


End file.
